Affiliation:
1. PharmD, Gulf Coast Clinical Services, Inc., 5375 worth Drive, Mobile, AL 36619.
Abstract
As the drug development process continues to mature and the health care industry places increasing demands for newer and safer drugs, ethical judgments of clinical research by society will be made. Already, many ethical dilemmas faced by the clinical research industry are gaining attention; examples include: (1) “true” informed consent for human subjects, (2) conflicts of interest in medical research, (3) data interpretation by pharmaceutical and bio-technology companies, and (4) the obligation to disclose financial agreements between the investigator and the study sponsor to the patient. The following editorial outlines these issues in further detail.